An artist who has continually straddled the line between light classical music and orchestra-infused pop, Piotr Rubik spent his early musical career (after attending Warsaw's Chopin Academy) as a cellist in the Jeunesses Musicales, before training in scoring under the great Ennio Morricone. In 2004, Rubik took the Polish musical scene by storm with the release of the Holy Cross of Golgotha oratorium, blurring the line between levels of musical sophistication. This was to form the first portion of Rubik's Holy Cross Triptych. The second portion, Tu Es Petrus, brought Rubik his largest success and fame, and was based on the life of Pope John Paul II (the piece had been planned as a gift to the pope, but was finished after his death). While individual songs from Tu Es Petrus were reworked into more radio-friendly pieces, Rubik's success only grew. A third portion of his trilogy centered around the dual September tragedies of the Nazi invasion of Poland and the September 11 attacks in the U.S. Rubik gradually lost critical acclaim as his works turned more pop-influenced, but the masses only bought his releases more rapidly. With increased confidence following a tribute to Krakow that spawned a number of additional pop releases, Rubik took another step toward the pop domain with 2008's Habitat, which featured (among other things) Rubik himself on the piano and a DJ/beatboxer combination for some of the passages. ~ Adam Greenberg
